Trending Drug: Gas Station Heroin

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When you walk into a gas station or convenience store, you don’t expect to find an addictive and dangerous drug on the shelf. But in most states, you might. And you wouldn’t even know the dangers just from looking at the package. 

This drug claims it can bring “happiness in a bottle,” and many people may take it for an energy boost, to relieve headaches or anxiety, or to boost mental sharpness and concentration. It can easily be found online, in convenience stores, and even in gas stations. It may also cost you your life.

Is tianeptine an opioid?

This drug, known as tianeptine, or “gas station heroin,” doesn’t contain heroin; it earned this nickname for the similar effects on the brain as opioids, including heroin. 

Although tianeptine technically is not an opioid, nor does it contain opioids, it is called “gas station heroin” because it binds to the mu-opioid receptors in the brain and activates these opioid receptors the same way opioids like morphine and heroin do, releasing feelings of pleasure and pain relief.

As a result, when taken in large doses, tianeptine can have the same side effects as opioids, including:

• Agitation 

• Confusion 

• Withdrawal 

• Drowsiness 

• Slowed/stopped breathing 

• Sweating 

• Nausea and vomiting 

• Addiction 

• Death from overdose

Five years ago, Johnathon Morrison, a 19-year-old college student from Alabama, suffered a very bad migraine and went to a local gas station looking for a remedy, according to his mother, Kristi Terry. A store employee allegedly recommended tianeptine, and over the course of the night, he took 12 pills. The bottle suggests taking two pills a day and not exceeding three doses per week. 

Terry said she found her son in bed unresponsive, and later, he was declared dead. 

“I knew that he took the pills for a headache. I had no idea that they would have taken his life,” she said.

A higher dose than suspected

Tianeptine is sold in the U.S. as a nootropic, a substance promising to enhance users’ mood and cognitive function. Individuals misuse this drug for many reasons: to get high, to alleviate their headaches, to improve their mental stimulation and concentration, etc. At a standard dose, people who take tianeptine don’t get a high, build up tolerance, or have withdrawal symptoms if they stop, but this drug is not taken in standard dosages, and hence why it causes so many concerns. 

Many users are taking it in larger dosages, sometimes even by injecting the drug. Unfortunately, they are unaware of their actual dosage as many of these commercial tianeptine products contain 100 times the normal therapeutic dose. Since the FDA does not regulate this drug, people are unknowingly taking high doses that can lead to dangerous side effects such as addiction, withdrawal, sedation, respiratory depression, confusion, agitation, and even death. 

Tianeptine on the shelves may be listed under different names. Look for “tianeptine,” “tianeptine sodium,” or “tianeptine sulfate” listed in the ingredients or supplement facts. It comes in both powder and pill form.

Common names for tianeptine products include:

• Coaxil®. 

• Neptune‘s Fix. 

• Pegasus. 

• Red Dawn. 

• Stablon®. 

• Tianaa®. 

• Tianna. 

• Za Za Red.

Tianeptine lives in a murky space in U.S. drug regulation, it is not legal to sell or use in the U.S. but some companies have found legal loopholes to add tianeptine in products falsely labeled as “dietary supplements”, hence why it is still sold on shelves today.  It has never been approved by the FDA for any medical purpose, including depression.  It also never earned a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) designation, a label the FDA puts on some chemicals and food additives. 

Poison control and tianeptine

Poison control centers have seen a sharp increase in tianeptine-related calls in the last several years. Many of these calls are due to dangerous side effects and withdrawal, and several people have died from tianeptine overdose. Poison control center cases jumped from 11 total cases between 2000 and 2013 to 151 cases in 2020 alone. In 2023, there were 391 calls to U.S. poison control centers about tianeptine. 

In February 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report noting 20 cases of tianeptine use leading to medical care in New Jersey. Thirteen people ended up being admitted to intensive care units.  In 2018, Michigan became the first state to ban sales of the drug, classifying it as a Schedule II controlled substance, the same category as drugs like cocaine and fentanyl. The FDA says at least 12 states have enacted similar bans.

Tianeptine as an antidepressant in Europe

Tianeptine was first discovered and used in France in the 1960s as an antidepressant and was thought to work in the same manner as a class known as “tricyclics” because it had a similar 3 ring structure. When it was first discovered, it was believed to be very effective at enhancing mood, but experts quickly realized that the drug was highly addictive as patients began doctor-shopping for more and were developing withdrawals after stopping the medication. 

It wasn’t until 2014 that researchers discovered that this medication worked in the same fashion as opioids. However, there were signs of addiction associated with tianeptine long before researchers made the opioid connection. 

In 2011, patients in France were taking an extremely high estimated daily dose of 540 mg of the drug and were “shopping” for tianeptine, using multiple doctors and pharmacies each month. They were also much younger than the average patient using tianeptine for depression. 

France imposed new restrictions, putting tianeptine under narcotics regulations and limiting prescription length for up to 28 days. Providers in Europe can still legally prescribe tianeptine, but only as a controlled substance. 

Unintentional Consequences

Imagine if you’re on a long drive and pull into a gas station and see bottles of supplements on the shelf labeled as “nootropic”. They prove to increase your alertness and boost your brain function. You purchase two little colorful bottles and drink one before continuing your road trip. While driving, you immediately feel “high,” as if you have taken a strong dose of opioids. This can be a very scary and dangerous position, especially while operating a vehicle. 

For many, tianeptine misuse is accidental. Just because you see an “energy booster or memory improvement supplement” on a gas station shelf does not mean it is safe.